Traditionally, electronic casino games, such as video poker, slot machines, video keno and the like, have been played on stand alone gaming machine. Each player is seated in front of his own gaming machine and the electronic computer controls necessary to operate and play the gaming machine are contained in each gaming machine.
With the advent of player tracking systems, gaming machines now contain the electronics necessary for the machine's computer controls to communicate with a remote server which can be located on the property of the gaming establishment or can even be located off the gaming establishment's property at a remote location.
Currently, the evolution of electronic gaming machines is toward what is known as “server-based gaming” (SBG) in which all of the operation control of each gaming machine is provided on a server located at a remote location from the gaming machine itself, either on-site or off-site the property of the gaming location.
For example, SBG is explained in U.S. Published Patent Application 20040248642 (Rothschild), the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
An advantage of the SBG environment on electronic gaming machines is the possibility of providing communication between two or more electronic gaming machines. The present invention allows two or more players, each sitting at his own gaming machine, to participate in a video poker tournament. The video poker tournament can require that each player make a wager or payment to enter the tournament or the video poker tournament may be provided by the gaming establishment without requiring each player to pay to participate.
There are many types of video poker games that can be played on an electronic gaming machine. Traditional video poker is a single player game in which a player plays one poker hand against a pay table, and not against other players' hands or a dealer's hand. The player attempts to achieve final card combinations that are based on poker hand rankings. Typically an initial hand is dealt to the player and the player is allowed to discard unwanted cards and replacement cards are provided for the discarded cards to form a final poker hand. The final poker hand is compared to a pay table to determine winning and losing hands and the player receives a payout based on the amount of his wager for a winning hand.
Multiple hand video poker allows the player to play multiple hands of video poker at the same time. Typically, the player is dealt two or more starting hands with each starting hand having the same cards. The player is allowed to discard unwanted cards and replacement cards are provided for the discarded cards to form the final poker hands. The player may discard the same cards from each starting hand or the player may discard different cards from each starting hand. Each of the final poker hands are compared to a pay table to determine winning and losing hands and the player receives a payout based on the amount of his wager for each winning hand. Typical multiple hand poker games come in three, five, ten, twenty, twenty-five, fifty and one hundred hand poker formats. Multiple hand poker is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,823,873 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,517,074, the disclosure of each is hereby incorporated by reference.
Flat rate play video poker changes the manner in which rounds of video poker are purchased, with each round of video poker typically comprising the player of one hand of cards. As discussed above, in traditional video poker, a player makes a wager for each round that is played. In flat rate player video poker, a player purchases a fixed number of rounds of video poker. The player then knows how many rounds of video poker the player can play for the amount of money he has invested. Flat rate play video poker is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,077,163 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,319,127, the disclosure of each is hereby incorporated by reference.
There is a need for allowing any of these forms of video poker to be played in a tournament format in which multiple players can compete against one another. This would add excitement to the play of video poker and provide for larger payouts than can be provided in typical single player versions of video poker.
Slot machine and video poker machine tournaments have been conducted in casinos for some time. The typical tournament is to have each tournament player play a similar slot machine or video poker machine for a designated length of time. The player or players with the highest scores at the end of the tournament receive awards in the form of cash or prizes.
A drawback to the typical video poker tournament format is that each player may receive different starting hands during his time of playing the video poker machine. The players who receive better starting hands will have a better chance of winning the tournament.
There is a need to provide a tournament format in which each player has the same opportunity to receive awards and this can be achieved by providing each player in the tournament with the same starting hands.